Concerns Accompany U.S. Support for Uribe
Talks in Colombia Note Alleged Abuses Of Human Rights

By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, October 26, 2006

BOGOTA, Colombia, Oct. 25 -- Beyond the hearty handshakes, a high-level U.S. delegation that visited here this week raised concerns with President Álvaro Uribe's government about human rights abuses by the army and about the scandal-plagued effort to disarm paramilitary groups.

R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, led 15 Bush administration officials from six agencies for meetings with virtually every top Colombian ministry. In reiterating support for Uribe, whose government receives more U.S. assistance than any country outside the Middle East, Burns told the Colombians that Washington would continue providing about $600 million a year through 2008 for programs from aerial fumigation of drug crops to training of the army.

But the delegation's two-day mission, which ended Wednesday, also confronted a string of reports that Colombia's army has been embroiled in drug-related scandals and murdered dozens of peasant farmers, only to pass them off as dead guerrillas.

"They're concerned that these issues haven't been resolved, that they continue to draw criticism from human rights groups, from the United Nations and presumably from some of their own diplomats," said Mark Schneider, senior vice president of the International Crisis Group, a policy analysis organization that regularly assesses the Colombian conflict.

"They're not blind to what's going on," said Schneider, who met with Burns on Monday in Washington before the diplomat left for Colombia.

In one particularly disturbing episode earlier this year, an army patrol with suspected ties to cocaine traffickers ambushed and killed 10 members of an elite anti-narcotics police unit trained by U.S. officials. Colombia's intelligence service is also trying to reform itself after allegations that rogue agents collaborated with paramilitary members to assassinate leftist union activists and provided secret information to drug traffickers.

The State Department has been concerned by reports that paramilitary commanders, despite having ostensibly laid down their arms, are killing hundreds of civilians while infiltrating government institutions. On Tuesday, two Colombian senators and a congressman were forced to give depositions at the Supreme Court after they were accused of working with paramilitary units.

In meetings with reporters on Tuesday, Burns stressed that U.S. support remains unwavering for Uribe and his "democratic security" policies, which are designed to take back a once-chaotic country from Marxist rebels, paramilitary groups and drug traffickers.

"But it is also true that there are big concerns raised about possible human rights violations," Burns said. "We are a friend of Colombia, and so, of course, we raise these issues."

The visit by the delegation, considered the highest-level visit by U.S. officials in years, occurred as Uribe's governing coalition has been hobbled by infighting and by concern that Marxist rebels remain a potent force. Last week, a powerful car bomb was set off inside one of the army's most important bases. That infuriated Uribe, who blamed leftist guerrillas and immediately cut off talks that could have led the rebels to release dozens of captives, including three Americans.

Despite the setbacks, the White House considers Uribe, who was reelected to a second four-year term in May, a stabilizing force and a Latin American success story.

Colombia was on the brink of calamity four years ago, but violence is decreasing and the economy is growing stronger. Nearly 400 drug traffickers have been extradited to the United States under Uribe's government, and the country is now considered a linchpin in an unstable region marked by rising populism and deepening poverty.

Still, some U.S. legislators, even supporters of Uribe, are increasingly pushing for better results. After providing more than $4 billion in aid, most of it for military and anti-drug programs, U.S. policymakers are concerned that as much coca is being cultivated in Colombia now as when aerial spraying of the drug crop began six years ago.

The message was increasingly pressed upon Burns and other State Department officials before his visit, said human rights activists, congressional aides and others who met with him recently.

"We've given them $4 billion since 1999, and there were people from Congress who felt that it would lead to more dramatic results," said Myles Frechette, a former U.S. ambassador here who remains in close contact with American diplomats.

"Congress has given this money, and things are not working the way they're supposed to work," said Frechette, who despite the criticism counts himself as a backer of Uribe.

Burns stressed that in Washington he had met with Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group, both of which have been critical of Uribe's policies. He also said on Tuesday that he had meetings scheduled with Colombian human rights groups.

"He knows the situation is not what it should be, given the huge financial investment the U.S. has made," said Tim Rieser, foreign policy aide to Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), ranking member of the Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations. "There's been a lot of criticism, and they recognize there are problems that need to be dealt with."

The International Crisis Group, which issued a report last week on Colombia, says it is crucial for the country to focus more of its resources on creating a functioning state in rural areas where armed groups often hold sway. After providing billions in aid, Schneider said, many in the U.S. Congress would like to see the Uribe government generate more of its own resources toward the effort.

"There are a lot of lawmakers at the Capitol who are concerned that Colombian taxpayers are not making the same sacrifice that American taxpayers have made to provide foreign assistance to Colombia," he said.